


Second Honeymoon

by ishtarelisheba



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Rumbelle Christmas in July, Rumbelle Christmas in July 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 18:50:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11584026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishtarelisheba/pseuds/ishtarelisheba
Summary: Rumpelstiltskin and Belle decide to indulge themselves in a second honeymoon, this time getting out of town and away from the chaos that is Storybrooke.





	Second Honeymoon

**Author's Note:**

> For we-aim-to-misbehave, who provided the prompt: swimming, iced tea, and sun block. Happy RCIJ! :D

There came a tentative knock at the door. Rumpelstiltskin studiously ignored the sound, tightening his arms around Belle and having no intention of getting out of bed to answer it. He was far too comfortable to move away from his wife. She was warm, snuggled into him as she was, drowsy and well sated after the most pleasant wake-up call he provided.

“Rumpel.”

“Mm.”

Another knock.

“Maybe you should get that?”

He nuzzled his face into her hair to illustrate just how little he cared to leave the bed. “I don’t believe so, no.”

“It’s probably room service.” Belle turned over in his arms. “Didn’t you order breakfast?”

“...There’s a standing order,” he acknowledged.

The look she gave him was one of the more common ones - the ‘well?’ written clearly across her features. He grumbled again and she patted his chest before he rolled away from her to grab his robe. 

“On my way!” he snapped in the general direction of the hotel room door, yanking the robe belt into a knot.

“Be nice, Rumpel,” Belle chided. She sat up, pulling the sheet up over her breasts. “They’re only doing their job.”

He disappeared into the short hallway that led from the living area to the entryway. The door clicked, and she heard the murmuring voice of whoever was on the other side of it. She heard Rumpel clear his throat.

“Ah. I see,” he said. “Yes, we’ll- We will.”

Belle heard the bit of rattling that meant a room service cart was indeed being wheeled in, then the door clicked shut again. Rumpel brought the cart out from the suite’s living area and pushed it up next to the bed.

“So it _was_ breakfast.” She crawled across their warm spot in the sheets and sat next to him on the edge. Rumpel’s face was pink across the cheeks. “Was there something else?”

A smile pulled at the corner of his mouth as he reached to pour their coffee. “It seems we’ve had a noise complaint.”

“You’re kidding.” Belle stared at his profile in disbelief. 

He cleared his throat again, spooning more sugar into one cup than the other. “We’ve been asked to keep it down. In a manner of speaking.”

She laughed and lifted one of the plate covers. It was filled with fruit, and she poked her first two fingers into a pair of raspberries. She sucked the one on her middle finger right off when Rumpel looked at her, then offered the other to him. “I have no intention of keeping anything down, I’ll have you know.”

Belle wiggled her forefinger at him until he took her hand in his. He brought it to his mouth. The feeling of his lips closing around her finger made her toes curl beneath the sheets. He pulled back, releasing her finger with a soft _pop._

She hummed happily, squirming. “Not keeping anything down now, am I?”

“No,” Rumpel said with a smile. “There is most assuredly something up.”

Belle curled a hand around the back of his neck before she laid down, dragging him with her.

~*~**~*~**~*~

The trip was meant as their second honeymoon. So much had happened during and in the wake of their first that they both wanted another. Something nicer, bigger. Away from the chronic disaster that was Storybrooke. Belle got a bit of travel out of the deal, and Rumpelstiltskin simply enjoyed being with her and watching her experience a slightly wider slice of the world. 

Key West was so different from back home that it was hard to believe they were in the same realm, much less still on the same continent. She’d never seen so much sunshine or so many bright lights. The hotel that Rumpel had booked for them had quite a few amenities that the mansion she’d happened across in the forest didn’t, as well. Room service, for example. And a real spa. And a hot tub.

The hot tub held a particular fascination for her. She had discovered the joy of massages in the downstairs spa, and the hot tub jets were something like receiving one of those - only with the addition of wonderful torrents of bubbles. The bubbles didn’t have a long life once they’d reached the surface of the water, though. That was her only disappointment. She had found a love for bubble bath, to Rumpel’s continued amusement. Every bath was now accompanied by a wonderful mass of bubbles. And if they were nice in the bathtub, how could they not be _amazing_ in the hot tub?

Belle dropped her robe over the nearby drying rack and slipped into the swirling water. “Rumpel, are you going to join me?” she called, leaning so that she could see back into the bedroom. He was just changing into his own robe.

“Right there, sweetheart,” he called back to her.

She took the little bottle of rose scented bubble solution and poured a bit into the cap, then drizzled it into the water. Not much happened. When she added it in the bath, she rinsed the cap under the faucet. There was no faucet in the hot tub, though. Belle supposed she would need to make up for that.

Dispensing with the small measurement of the cap, she poured a very liberal amount in one of the spots where the jets stirred the water. The reaction was pretty immediate. Bubbles developed all over the surface, creating a lovely blanket of them that surrounded her.

“Oh…” Her eyes widened as the fine bubbles grew higher. And higher. And _higher._ “Oh, no.”

“Belle?” Rumpel said. She could hear his footsteps.

Belle screwed the cap quickly back onto the bottle. “I did something,” she said, not quite knowing how to explain it when he stepped out onto the little balcony where the hot tub sat. 

He stopped short, staring in bewilderment. “What in seven hells-?”

“Help?” she managed before the bubbles blocked her line of sight entirely. She tried to push them away, then attempted to push them down, but nothing worked. There were too many still foaming up.

She heard laughter. Rumpel was laughing. At her. 

Belle sputtered. “It’s not that funny!” 

His laughter grew worse, and she felt the bump of him sitting down on the side of the hot tub. A moment later, he slid into the water next to her, and she could see him again. There were actual tears of mirth on his cheeks. She couldn’t help laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation, and Rumpel broke down in laughter all over again.

“At least it isn’t an indoor hot tub,” he choked out when he’d calmed enough that he could breathe.

She pushed bubbles away as the foam built up between them. They could keep it back that much, at least.

“How are we supposed to clean this up?” she asked. The bubbles had poured over the edges of the hot tub, spread across the floor, and mounded up against the walls and door. 

“Easily,” Rumpel said. “Are you ready to be rid of them?”

“Maybe not _all_ of them,” she said, reaching up to wipe away a cluster of bubbles that had attached itself to his chin. “Could you just make them more reasonable?”

With a flicking wave of his hand, the bubbles disappeared into a quickly dissipating cloud of red smoke. They were left with a blanket of them churning over top of the water, now tame and just enough to be entertaining.

“You could have done that in the beginning,” Belle observed, giving him an a fondly exasperated look.

He shook his head, grinning and wrapping his arms around her slippery torso. “It was too nice watching you laugh, to get rid of them so quickly.”

~*~**~*~**~*~

Belle had booked the hotel and activities for their honeymoon herself. She’d meticulously put together a schedule for the two weeks they would be on holiday, filled with activities that they could both enjoy.

Thus far, they were a week in and they’d gone to a single reservation for a private dolphin watch. Not that she would ever complain about it. She was happy in the distractions that kept them off-schedule. It only went to show how she and Rumpel could still lose themselves in one another. After everything that had happened, all the years and upheaval and disasters, she felt that was something of a miracle. 

Not everything she’d put together for their trip was so big. There were details. Perhaps she had gotten carried away, but when she saw it mentioned in the guide on the hotel website that the staff was open to any requests, and that they invited guests to be creative… Well, she could hardly resist the challenge.

When they’d walked into the hotel room that first afternoon, weary from the flight and ready for nothing more than lunch and a nap, both of them had received a bit of a surprise. She hadn’t told Rumpel about her requests, and to be honest, she’d forgotten most of them, herself. She hadn’t really expected the staff to do the silly little things she’d asked of them.

The most obvious things were the pair of towels folded into the shapes of fish and flamingos on the bed. Then there were the dozens of golden paper-wrapped chocolates arranged into the shape of the Key West islands on the dresser. It wasn’t until they went to get a closer look at the towels that Belle remembered the last request she’d made. She’d been running out of ideas, and it had seemed funny at the time to ask the staff to ‘tuck us into bed and make us comfy before we arrive,’ just to see what they would come up with.

Rumpel’s initial reaction to the entire thing had tickled her. “Have we been vandalized?” he’d asked, taking the blown up and printed photo of his own face from where it had been propped against one of the pillows. He pulled the sleep mask off it and looked up at her, holding them in each hand.

The photograph she’d sent along of herself had been given a similar treatment, printed out and given a little sleep mask, with the addition of false eyelashes glued to the satin. She’d picked it up, smiling. “They did everything I asked!” she had said, looking around.

Once she’d told him what she did, he took the idea and ran with it. Every time they returned to the room after the maid service had been in, there were new towel animals and another sculpture made of chocolates. Then there was the day they came back from a lunch date to a room filled with dozens of red roses. She had turned to find Rumpel with a broad, satisfied grin, and she’d pounced him right into bed.

When they returned from dinner on this particular evening, they found that the maid service had been in to tidy, as usual. A pair of enormous beach towels had been folded into flat dolphins on the bedspread. It was perfect timing; there was an event on the beach they’d planned to attend, and the towels were ideal.

“Why do we never have fireworks displays back home?” Belle asked as they waited for the show to begin.

Rumpel made an indecisive sound. “I suppose because they cost a great deal in this world. Even Storybrooke has its budget.”

“There are enough people in town with magic. We could have a better display than this without having to buy-” She made a general hand motion. “Physical firework… things.”

He chuckled, turning his head toward her where she rested on his outstretched arm. “All right. You’re welcome to ask Emma and Regina to shoot colorful sparks into the sky.”

Belle flopped her hand over at him, lightly smacking his chest with the back of it. “You don’t know, they might be all for it.”

The first of the July Fourth fireworks hit the sky with a bang and a flash, and an _oooh_ went up across the beach below them. They’d laid down their towels a bit up the hill, beyond where the others were. The crowd didn’t bother her, but Rumpel hadn’t seemed thrilled by it. Another pair of fireworks went off, green and purple this time, and she watched as the sparks rained down a ways before disappearing.

Rumpel took her hand from where it still lay on his chest and lifted it to his lips, pressing a kiss to her fingers. She looked over to find a grin on his face. Belle felt warmth pooling low in her belly again - a promise of what was to come when they got back to the room. 

She turned and sat up on her knees, shifting herself over so that she could straddle his hips. She had no intention of having sex out here with hundreds of other people around, but the way her husband blinked up at her in surprise was immensely gratifying. Belle could practically see his mind ticking along in an attempt to recover his wits.

“We do make fireworks of our own,” he finally said, his hands lifting to set at her waist.

“Mhmm,” she agreed, leaning down to kiss him. “But not everyone gets to watch those.”

She felt his fingers curling into the fabric of her skirt as he said, “Let them find their own.”

“You could make magical fireworks, too,” Belle hinted heavily, kissing his jaw and brushing her lips against the evening scruff developing there. “Why would I ask anyone else when I have you?”

He made a sound deep in his throat, the vibration transferring into her chest where she leaned into him. “I’ll think about it.”

“Mind if I try to convince you?” she asked, ducking her head to press a kiss to the side of his neck. She felt him squirm beneath her. 

He swallowed hard, a hitch in his breathing. “No, no, you can try all you like…”

~*~**~*~**~*~

“I’m almost ready, Rumpel,” she said as she did a bit of contortion to tie her bikini top behind her. “Aren’t you?”

Through the bathroom door, she heard him call back, “I’ve been ready.”

That gave her pause. She hadn’t heard any of his telltale rifling around to get dressed. But she supposed it wouldn’t take as much as usual for him to get into a pair of trunks, either. She pulled her hair up into a doubled over ponytail to keep it out of the way, grabbed her mesh cover-up from the counter, and stepped back into the bedroom.

He was still in his suit. Belle sighed, giving him a look that she hoped very obviously communicated a sentiment of, _Seriously, Rumpel?_

“You look nice,” he offered, clearly attempting to deflect the observation that he knew was coming. 

“You can’t sit by the pool in a three-piece.”

“I don’t see why not.”

She gave him one of _those_ looks. “For one, you’ll sweat through every one of the dozen layers you have on.”

He corrected weakly, “Five…”

“And you’ll draw more attention in that than you would in a swimsuit,” she pointed out.

Rumpel frowned, looking down at himself. The unsettled expression on his face made her cross to where he sat on the side of the bed. She dropped her cover-up on top of the pool tote filled with her version of poolside necessities and squatted down in front of him, her hands on one of his knees.

“If you don’t want to go to the pool today, we won’t,” she said. “We can always find something else to do.”

He shook his head. “You’ve talked about going to the pool for days. It’s my fault you haven’t. There’s no sense in changing your plans.”

Belle tilted forward onto her knees, kneeling up between his legs and reaching for his tie. She slid the length of it between her fingers before pressing herself close. “I asked the attendants about the slowest time, and we’re guaranteed a practically private pool for a couple of hours. You don’t have to worry about anyone looking.”

“That isn’t it,” he told her, looping his arms around her and lacing his fingers in the small of her back. “Not wholly.”

“What is it, then?” she asked.

He looked down, and she grinned when she realized that his eyeline had moved to her breasts.

Rumpel murmured so quietly that she almost didn’t hear it. “I can’t swim…”

“You can’t- oh.” Belle blinked. It had never crossed her mind that he couldn’t. There was no wonder he’d been putting it off. 

He frowned, his gaze falling to the side. “You should go and enjoy the pool by yourself.”

“No,” she told him firmly. “I’m not going to go and do something by myself for hours on my honeymoon.” Reaching up, she gave his tie a tug. “Will you go ahead and change? For me?”

His mouth opened, but she tugged at his tie again before he could come up with an excuse. He met her eyes. “You’re certain it won’t be crawling with the other guests?”

“The pool attendants gave their word.”

After a moment, he nodded. She rocked back on her heels and stood, stepping out of his way so that he could use the privacy of the bathroom. Rumpel took the green shopping bag that held his swimsuit and made his way a bit reluctantly to change.

He’d gotten himself a pair of black trunks and a nicely-fitted black swim shirt when they went shopping for swimwear for her. She hadn’t been surprised; she’d expected him to opt for rather modest things. The gold Speedo she had wiggled teasingly at him over the top of the dressing room door had been met with an indignant sputter that she would treasure.

She had come out of the shops with a bag full of poolside possibilities, and Rumpel had stuck to the single outfit. Not that he didn’t look nice in it. Oh, _did he._

He stepped out of the bathroom with one of the hotel-supplied robes on. “I detest ‘flip-flops’ already,” he muttered. 

Belle pressed her lips together, glancing down at his feet. They looked just fine, but he was clearly uncomfortable in the sandals. “You can take them off as soon as we get down there. We’ll sit beside the pool for a while, then see how you feel.”

He smiled as though he were in pain behind it. “That sounds… tolerable.”

She picked up her bag and slipped her arm through his, steering him toward the door. “It’ll be fun.”

“Fun,” he grumbled quietly. 

“You don’t have to get into the pool, Rumpel,” she told him as the elevator doors swished closed on them, despite how she’d looked forward to him getting into the water with her.

“I want to,” he said with a frown. “I get tired of watching and not doing.”

“Well, if you want to, then get in with me. There’s a shallow end, and you can walk around or float until you’re comfortable trying to do more.” She smiled over at him, going up on her tiptoes to kiss the corner of his mouth. “But you don’t have to _swim_ if you don’t feel comfortable. And you don’t have to go into the deep end. You know I wouldn’t let you drown, though.”

Her protective assertion brought a soft huff of a laugh out of him. Bodies of water much deeper than the hot tub in their suite sent chills of dread down his back. It wasn’t the most _sensible_ fear, he knew, and certainly not for a sorcerer of his power and more than three centuries in. Still. The thought of swimming, of getting his head under the water, made him feel as though a stone sank in his stomach.

He was relieved to find the pool area just as sparsely populated as she’d said it would be. There were a couple of children off in the deep end, and a woman whom he figured must be their mother sat on a pool lounge nearby keeping an eye on them.

When they made it to the poolside, Belle claimed a lounge and pulled the one next to it up close. “Help me with my sunscreen?” she asked as she slipped out of her cover-up and sat down to dig it up from the bottom of her bag.

Rumpel smiled, sitting on the lounge she’d taken for him. She squeezed some into her hand for her arms and legs before handing the bottle to him and turning around. He filled his palm with a good amount and rubbed it between his hands before massaging it onto her back. Belle squirmed as he applied the sunscreen to her skin in slow strokes, and he heard a distinctly happy hum come from her as he reached the small of her back.

Smirking, he leaned close to ask, “Does that feel good?”

“So good,” Belle said. She closed her eyes, basking in the feeling of her husband’s hands and the heat of the sun. She’d be covered in freckles before their honeymoon was over, and it would absolutely be worth it. 

“We could go back upstairs,” he tempted. “I could do so much more, were we in private…”

She turned around with a bounce, giving him a knowing look. “That won’t work on me.”

“It’s worked on you a good many times,” Rumpel pointed out, and she could have pinched him for the smug expression he had.

“I believe you need some sunscreen, too,” she said, reaching for the bottle on the lounge cushion next to him.

He started to argue, but his refusal was silenced by the realization that Belle applying the lotion would mean her hands on him. He took off the black bathrobe, feeling very nearly naked wearing so little, and watched as she smoothed a bit between her hands and took hold of his arm. She rubbed it briskly into his exposed skin - first his arms, then his legs, before taking a bit more to put on his face. 

Rumpel closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of his wife’s fingertips carefully sweeping over his cheeks and forehead and jawline. He smiled as she rubbed a little into his nose.

“All done,” she said, and he felt her drop a kiss on his cheek before he opened his eyes again.

“Is there anything I can get you?” an attendant asked, hovering at a respectful distance.

“Yes, please,” Belle answered before Rumpel could get snippy about them being interrupted. “Two tall glasses of iced tea? Mint in one, extra sugar in the other. Don’t bring them right away. Wait… an hour, maybe?”

The attendant nodded and left them, and Belle turned back to her husband. “What do you think of the pool?”

“I think the tile makes the water appear a very nice shade of blue,” he said without missing a beat.

She gave him an unimpressed look. “What do you think of us getting you _into_ the pool.”

He glanced over at the water, at the gentle waves that lapped at the sides on the shallow end, caused by the two children playing farther down. “It doesn’t look terrible,” he allowed. “Perhaps we should call home once more? To check in?”

“We called right before changing,” Belle pointed out, giving him a fond look. “He’s fine. Granny’s fine. They’re happy as clams.” She slipped her sandals off and swatted him affectionately on the leg before getting up. “Come on, then,” she said as she padded off toward the steps leading into the pool.

He watched as she stepped down into the water, admiring how the narrow ruffle on the back of her pretty blue swimsuit bottom accentuated her sway. She caught him, throwing him a grin over her shoulder.

She gestured to him again and he gave in. It was inevitable that he would, but he felt that he owed some token amount of resistance. He took his cane and stepped out of his ridiculous flip-flops there with their things before going over. Laying his cane by the edge of the pool, he did his best to ease himself into the water. Belle took his arm to help him in. 

He wasn’t a large man by any means, and the water reached his ribcage. Of course, it hit Belle just under her breasts, but it didn’t seem to bother her. There were goosebumps on her arms and chest beneath droplets of water. Rumpel’s tongue darted out to wet his lips. If they were alone, he’d have tugged her close and licked them off. Alas.

“Walk around, see how it’s all right,” she said as she leaned backward and let herself drift a few feet away.

The buoyancy helped when it came to not putting weight on his bad leg, at least. He walked across the shallow end, following Belle as she waved her arms beneath the water to propel herself.

“See?” She stood up again, taking his hand. “It’s so nice in here.”

“It’s all right,” he admitted.

It took no time at all for Belle to teach him how to float on his back - he even seemed to be enjoying it before she decided to move him on to something more. 

“You’ve seen a dog swim, haven’t you?” she asked.

Rumpel frowned, giving her a curious look. “I suppose.”

“Don’t you remember how they move their feet?”

He nodded. “Dog paddling. You want me to dog paddle.”

“That’s how you start off swimming,” she said with a smile. “Lift your feet off the bottom, pull your knees up, and move your hands like a dog swimming.”

He imagined himself in such a position and eyed his wife sidelong. “That sounds absurd.”

She grinned at him. “It looks it, a little. But you’re just learning.”

After a bit more grumbling and an example that he knew for certain looked far more graceful on Belle than it would when he did the same, he had a try. He managed to dunk his head under immediately.

“Oh!” Belle was at his side as though she’d magicked there, pushing his hair out of his eyes with gentle hands. “You’re meant to keep your head above water, Rumpel.”

He sputtered through the pool water dripping down his face. “I realize that. Didn’t help much.”

“Try again?” She drifted a couple of feet away from him, encouraging him to go on.

He managed to keep his head up on the second attempt. It went marginally better, and Belle urged him to try again and again. She rewarded him with a kiss after each trip across the shallow end. The reward of her kisses did more to keep him trying than the goal of being able to enter water more than a bathtub could hold without drowning.

Belle had him dog paddle back and forth a bit until he’d gotten the hang of it. He was doing well enough that she thought she might be able to get him to do the same across the length of the pool.

“Why don’t you try it down the deep end and back?” she said, and he put his feet on the bottom of the pool, giving her a stubborn look. 

“What happened to ‘you don’t have to go into the deep end’?” he asked.

“You don’t have to. Of course you don’t have to,” Belle told him. She ducked under the water and glided through toward him, grabbing hold of his shirt as she surfaced right against his front. She swept her hands over her face and beamed up at him, all blue eyes and exertion-pinked cheeks. “If you _wanted_ to, though, I would be there with you.”

Rumpel looked down at the other end, where the pair of children seemed to play some blind seeking game. If children could do it, he decided, then bloody well so could he. 

“All right,” he said, and Belle took his hand. 

They walked toward the deep end together, and at a certain point, she floated herself around in front of him, facing him. She took his other hand, as well, and he felt the pool floor begin to slant downward as she guided him. His hands tightened around hers as he felt the change beneath his feet. The water rose up his body, and he felt lighter.

Rumpel’s feet slipped a bit and he startled, reeling back in an attempt to get his feet on the tile again. They were too far out.

“Belle, wait-” he said, shaking his head.

“Okay, it’s okay,” she told him, bouncing a bit in the water as she got into a position to push him back to a shallower point. She guided him until he could get a foothold again. “It’s okay, no deep end.”

She looked over, catching sight of the attendant with their glasses of tea. The young man waited until they were in the shallows again.

“Just leave them there by the cane, please,” she told him, and he did as she said, setting the tray next to the edge of the pool. She looked to Rumpel, whose mouth was set in an uncomfortable line. “Let’s go and have a drink of our tea, hm?”

He nodded, letting her guide him to the edge, and he kept a hand on it until they were near the little tray. Belle took the first sip from the glass with a sprig of mint, humming with delight. He took a small sip from his own, concentrating on the ice cubes.

“Rumpel, is it all right if I ask why you’re afraid of the water?” she asked gently, moving so that she stood against his side.

He shrugged, frowning, and used his straw to poke pieces of ice down into the glass. “Suppose it’s something that simply happened, isn’t it?”

“But there’s usually a reason, even if it’s just that someone was never exposed to a big body of water.”

He could feel Belle watching his face, and he looked over at her. “Does the reason matter?”

“Well… I suppose not.” She curled a hand over his wrist, giving it a squeeze. “I was only wondering what could have made such a terrible impression on you. If there was something.”

Rumpel screwed his eyes shut, tilting his face up to the sun. “When I was a boy, there was a stream out in the forest behind where we lived. My father and I bathed there in the warm months. This once, we happened upon a pair of boys throwing sacks into the water, letting them sink.”

She thought she knew where the story was going, and she tightened her hold on his arm. 

“One of the boys dropped his bag, and it squirmed. Turned out they were getting rid of a family of raccoons that had been bothering their garden.” He bowed his head, keeping his eyes closed. “My father laughed. He said, ‘That’s an idea, there. Wish I’d thought of it years back, myself. Could’ve gotten rid of _my_ pest.” Rumpel fidgeted with his straw, his mouth turned down into a deep frown. “I couldn’t stand being in water more than it took to have a bath after.”

Belle gawped at him, absolutely taken aback. “Oh, Rumpel… That’s… Gods, I’m so sorry.”

He shrugged as though he could brush the memory away.

“Your father should never have said something like that,” she told him, moving her hand from his arm to touch his cheek. _“Ever.”_

Rumpel took a long drink, the tea so cold that it made his throat ache as it went down. “Wasn’t the worst he said. I suppose it simply left a mark. Haven’t been able to erase it. I don’t want to talk about it,” he admitted, just short of pleading with her to drop the subject. 

Belle set down her tea glass, wrapping her arms around his neck. She kissed just beneath his ear with lips cold from her tea. He shivered, relaxing in her embrace. She took the glass from his hand and set it next to hers before pressing herself full length against him and bringing her knee slowly up to nestle it between his thighs.

“I’m ready to get out of the water and go back to the room,” she purred near his ear. “You?”

He felt himself twitch against her leg through his swim trunks despite the cold water. “I think so, yes,” he said, a lovely smirk at home in the corner of his mouth. 

Belle put their glasses back on the tray and pushed it away from the edge of the pool, taking Rumpel’s hand and towing him along to the steps. She went up first, grabbing his cane so that she could hand it to him as soon as he was out. There was a stack of towels beneath a nearby umbrella-shaded table, and she grabbed a couple. She swung one around his shoulders before he could get his bathrobe back on and dried herself off a bit. Wrapping her own towel around her waist, she grabbed her bag and took her husband’s hand again.

The elevator ride up was filled with kisses and touching, and he was thankful that no one interrupted by trying to join them in the small metal box. It seemed to take far longer to go back up to their room than it had on the way down.

She shed her towel as soon as the hotel room door was closed, pushing at Rumpel’s robe to get rid of it, as well. Belle wasn’t going to be content until she had him stripped to the skin. He helped to shrug out of the robe and she pushed the towel off his shoulders. His shirt posed a wet, clinging problem, and they had to work at it. They dropped onto the bed in a breathless heap. When she hit the covers, though, she hissed in pain.

“Ouch!” she whispered, frowning as Rumpel pulled her up to sit.

“What is it?” he asked, giving the mattress behind her a quick look.

Belle turned her head, trying to look at her shoulder. “Oh, no.”

“What?”

She sighed. “Apparently the sunscreen I found in the hotel shop wasn’t that great after all.”

He sat next to her, reaching to pluck the end of one of her bikini top strings to release it, and she shrugged carefully out of the straps. A very clear white line left its mark in the bright red of her shoulder and neck.

Rumpel cringed in sympathy. “Oh, sweetheart.”

She looked at her arms, also burned, though not as badly. Then she looked at him. He hadn’t a burn on him. He’d actually managed to tan. Rumpel had gone a bit golden on his face and arms - the sort of sunny glow she’d aspired to acquire over their honeymoon.

“Here, let me,” he said, ducking his head to press a kiss to her shoulder. 

She squeaked at the instant of stinging when his lips made contact. It stopped hurting, though. He sat back, and she watched as the inflammation disappeared from the spot where he’d pressed the kiss. The healed skin spread from there, and it was the most wonderful sensation of utter relief as the burn cleared and the pain of it faded. There wasn’t much of a tan left behind, but she found herself left with more freckles than she’d ever had.

Belle beamed up at him. “Thank you,” she said, grabbing his arm and falling back again, taking him with her.

She hooked her fingers in the sides of her bikini bottom, wriggling to work the wet fabric down off her hips. Rumpel helped until she could kick them off her feet, at which point she began relieving him of his trunks At least they were a bit loose and far easier to push down than his snug swim shirt had been to peel off.

She caught her foot around the back of his knee. “Come here,” she said, urging him over her.

It didn’t take any further encouragement. He rolled on top of her and she squeaked happily, stroking her hands over his damp hair. 

Rumpel slipped his hand between them, touching her first to be entirely certain that she was ready before guiding himself into place. She tilted her hips as he found her entrance, and he slid right in with the first thrust. Belle gasped into his mouth, her hands grabbing hold of his hair.

They were both still overwarm from the sun, still smelling like the pool and sunscreen, tasting like tea and mint. Sunlight poured in through the balcony window, splashing across the bed, and Belle did her best to create a perfect memory of the moment. She wrapped her legs around Rumpel, pulling him closer, deeper, and she reveled in the groan that she drew from him. 

“More,” she told him, “Please!”

Her husband was nothing if not accommodating. His thrusts grew harder, more intense, and she saw the strain beginning to develop in the lines of his face. He was having to hold back from finishing, and knowing that brought her closer, herself. She began meeting his thrusts, enjoying the delightfully obscene sound their bodies made as the snap of his hips brought him deep into her again and again. 

“Rumpel!” she shouted, letting go of his hair in favor of clinging desperately to his shoulders, her fingernails biting into his skin.

A sound suspiciously like a growl rumbled in his throat, and that was it - she was done for. The building heat in her abdomen and in the small of her back overwhelmed her and she came, arching up against him. She shouted again, wordlessly, her body clinging to him through waves of pleasure. 

Belle kept her legs wrapped around him as her orgasm dissipated, and she watched as he sought his own release. His thrusts became harder still, making her toes curl. The breathless, desperate look he had about him gave her delicious aftershocks. She lifted her hands to cradle his face between them, and he gave her a look that bordered on broken.

“That’s it, Rumpel,” she cooed to him, gasping as he collided particularly hard with her. “God, _yes!_ Come on, almost there… Right there, Rumpel, right here, inside me…”

He grunted suddenly, his mouth dropping open. “Belle!” he cried out and his body went taut. 

His hips hitched into her once more, and she felt as he finished. She rocked her hips as well as she could, helping to draw the pleasure out for him. He bowed his head, leaning it to touch hers, and she circled his shoulders with her arms to hold him close.

After long moments, he moved carefully off of her. It took some doing - far more moving than either of them truly wanted to do - but they managed to get themselves beneath the covers. Despite the sun, her skin cooling after such exertion still gave her a chill.

“What do you think of having a pool put in at home?” Rumpel asked, grinning over at her.

“That would be nice, but you don’t have to,” she told him. “If you aren’t comfortable with it, then I don’t want you having to look at it day in and day out.”

He hummed. “I could get accustomed. I might even allow a few more swimming lessons.”

She smiled, stretching to kiss the curve of his jaw, and gave it a little nip. “Slowly. Much more slowly than just walking into the deep end.”

“That would be appreciated,” he said, tilting his head to give her better access. 

Belle took full advantage, nipping at his neck, then his collar bone. She squirmed up onto her knees, making a string of kisses down his sternum. When she reached the bottom of his ribcage, she nuzzled against the line of them, making him twitch and give a choked laugh. 

“What are you doing?” he asked, trying to look at her.

She smirked back up at him from the vicinity of his navel. “Getting another noise complaint.”


End file.
